In the Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

A short paper on the historical development of economic thought in West, its relationship
with the social order and how the two have brought the world to its current state of
despair. The paper also provides a framework for an alternative and appeals to look at the
problem holistically and systemically to appreciate that a solution within the current
system is not possible.

Written by Muhammad Saad Faridi

FOREWORD

In order to set the right context for this paper, we will need to remind ourselves that we are
in a continuous battle with Iblees which started the day Adam (AS) was appointed as the
vicegerent by Allah. When Iblees refused to prostate before Adam (AS) against the explicit
Command of Allah, he provided a rational justification for the same; I am made from fire
and Adam is made from clay and hence I am superior to him. Upon Allah’s disapproval he
again resorted to blaming Allah for his own actions and promised to prove his point until the
day of judgement that Adam was not worthy of the position bestowed upon him. In this
event lies a universe of knowledge which is necessary to understand the strategy of Iblees in
achieving his ulterior motive of bringing humans down to a level where he can claim his
point of view to be correct. From this event we can learn his impulse of finding a rational
justification against the explicit order of the Divine wisdom and then proceeding to put the
blame for his misfortune on Allah instead of feeling any remorse. Over the course of history,
we will observe that whatever iblees did for himself, he has led us to follow the same. He
utilized our weaknesses to incite us into wanting for the worldly desires, then made us alter
divine guidance to suite our own impulses and finally lead us to alter Allah’s creation to
come in a position to claim divinity. This ulterior plan can only be understood through a
careful study of history and hence the need to understand the historical context of the
development of economic thought. With this context, this paper has been structured into 3
parts as follows:
i. Part 1 focuses on the historical development of economic thought in Europe
which laid the foundation of a global world order in which we are living today
ii. Part 2 provides the social backdrop during the same period to emphasise that
the process was run through the society following the principles that Iblees
desires
iii. Part 3 provides a brief framework of how this can be challenged through an
alternative system. More importantly it tries to conclude that a solution, within
the life system sculptured by Iblees over centuries is not possible. We will need
to reset the whole system to have any chance of bringing the system of universal
justice for which we were given the important responsibility on Earth.
PART 1
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT IN WEST AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON SOCIETY
AT LARGE

As a vicegerent of Allah, it is one of the fundamental responsibilities of humans to institute a

system of justice as ordained by Allah on this Earth. This system of justice encompasses all
facets of life, economics being one of them. It is thus the responsibility of humans to
implement an economic system which provides equal opportunities to all to live a decent
life. The system of justice is not only limited to humans as it is a system of universal justice
but also ensures that other creatures of this earth are not disadvantaged at the expense of
humans. Allah has distributed means of livelihood in a way that no creature, no matter how
small, can live a life devoid of any worries over livelihood. This is an example of Him being
The Just, in its most perfect sense. To keep this system intact and to run it in a way that the
system of divine justice continues with its full force is a fundamental responsibility of
humans on this Earth. However, the common observation is contrary to this fundamental
understanding and therefore, it is important to understand why so. Why are there
distortions in the economic system which has led to a complete breakdown of economic
justice on Earth for humans as well as for other creatures.

This important observation cannot be clarified without due consideration of the historical
context and the development of economic thought, particularly in the West as the current
economic model was developed in the Western countries. We would therefore dwell upon
the history of economic thought in Europe which would explain, to a large extent, the
evolutionary process through which the system of justice has been defaced and defiled to its
current form. We also hope that, through this understanding, the strategy of Iblees will also
transpire to the reader, Insha Allah.

Before we commence the story of the development of economic thought, it is important to

clarify what is actually an economy and how does it differentiate with political economy.
The economy of a geography is the collective sum of all economic transactions taking place
in that geography. An economic transaction is the exchange of goods, of services or both for
money. Historically, the concept of economics was associated with the earning of livelihood
and therefore to individuals exchanging goods and services to live their respective lives. In
contradistinction to the concept of economy, the term political economic took shape in the
18th century, which extended the scope and implications of economic activity to the
collective wealth of the geography or country. In other words, just like, the wealth of a
person was a sign of his or her power in society, the wealth of the nation was to be
considered the symbol of power for that nation amongst nations. This naturally led to the
state intervening in economic matters to ensure that the overall wealth of the nation
increases over time and consequentially its power. This led to the development of various
models, through which the wealth of nations could be created and distributed amongst its
inhabitants.

The roots of political economy can be found in the Renaissance movement which
commenced in Europe in the 15 th century. The renaissance movement was a reaction to the
religiosity of the medieval period and aimed to bring Europe back to its “golden age” or the
“classic age” of the Greeks and the Romans. The central concept of this age was ‘humanism’
which was centered around rationality as a driving force, devoid of any divine guidance.
Humanism demanded freedom and that clearly led to a gradual giving away of Feudalism
which was the reigning economic model in Europe. The transition was gradual, from master-
slave relationship to master-serf relationship. The relevance of faith, tradition and authority
faded away in the onslaught of freedom as a concept. The concept of freedom gradually
resulted in people migrating to communes around city area and master serf relationships
started changing to employer – employee. Upto this stage, the class structure of the society
comprised of the landlord, worker and occasional professionals (such as carpenters,
ironsmiths, cobblers etc). money used to be in the form of gold and silver coins due to which
the money supply in the economy remained stable with little or no inflation. Inflation would
only set in in case of natural calamities. In the master – serf relationship, the master used to
provide for the livelihood of the serf with very little exchange of money. Accordingly, it was
common to look at ‘goods’ and ‘services’ in terms of their value-in-use rather than
exchange value. This is an important concept and needs to be understood. An exchange
value is the value that one can expect to receive by selling a commodity or in other words its
monetized value. A value-in-use on the other hand is the value that a person associates to a
commodity by the use of it. For example, if I have plenty of apples in my garden, I may have
very little value-in-use for the excess. Since value-in-use was the reigning concept, it was
normal for people to be charitable towards others by giving away things which had little
value-in-use for them. On the other hand, as exchange value concepts took root in people’s
mind, they started thinking of goods in terms of money, which could be accumulated by
disposing off the excess.

At this time, trade was limited to people selling their own goods. Artisans and craftsmen
were entrepreneurs who would run their small businesses in the local community or
occasionally through trade outside their local communes. In case if trade was done through
other people, the traders were given wages for their services while the profits remained
with the entrepreneur. However, this important concept changed during renaissance with
the emergence of a new class of traders, which were called Merchants. Contrary to the
existing practice of working on wages, Merchants would buy goods from entrepreneurs and
sell them in other markets by making profits. Merchants started becoming wealthier and
wealthier and became responsible for the start of a new phase in European economics that
was later named as Mercantilism. With their growing wealth, their power also increased
and they moved to the next phase of wealth accumulation whereby they started providing
raw materials to the artisans for the manufacturing of goods. Previously their role was
limited to only purchasing and selling of goods but in order to increase their share of profits
they started providing raw materials to the artisans. In the next step, they collaborated with
bankers and started making their own workshops and bought their own tools. The poor
artisan, who was once an entrepreneur had no option but to become a labour in the
workshop of the merchant. In this way, a new class was emerging, which would later evolve
into what we call the capitalist. Another important development during this time was
somehow linked with the secularization of the society. The relationship of economic activity
with communal support and with justice in the society was earmarked by the reasonability
of profits that were charged by the entrepreneurs. The level of transparency was such that
products used to carry complete details of the cost of the product and the profit charged by
the entrepreneur. However, for the merchants, this transparency was a liability. With
bankers on their back for the payment of interest and principal, it was imperative that they
increase prices to make room for the additional amount to be allocated to the banker. This
was not possible with the prevailing transparency and therefore the practice of stating costs
and profits gradually gave way to murkiness and increasing prices.
While formal economic theories were still not developed, debate over the class structure of
the society and the role of each class in the creation and distribution of wealth was
discussed. The class system had expanded to include landlord, worker and the merchant
class. Landlords were earning rents, workers were earning wages while merchants were
earning profits. The bourgeoise comprising of the landlord and merchants were seen as the
classes responsible for the distribution of wealth whereas, rather unique theories emerged
with respect to the worker class and their productivity. The mercantilists believed that the
most productive wage level for the workers was the ‘subsistence level’. If workers were paid
more than the subsistence level, they would indulge in merry making which eventually
results in declining productivity. Hence it was important to keep the workers in a state of
struggle at subsistence wage so that it is difficult for them to think of anything else except
work while focusing on maintaining their productivity to make the two ends meet.

The growing wealth and power of the merchant class resulted in their getting access to the
ruling class. This was all happening at the time Europe was undergoing a secularization
process. The theories and philosophies of stalwarts like Saint Augustine and Thomas
Aquinas were gradually replaced by the emerging philosophers like Rene Descartes and
Reformists like Martin Luther. It is important to note that the birth of political economy was
taking place at the same time as Europe was going through this secularization process. The
process of secularization, as far as political economy is concerned was completed in the 16 th
century all the while supported by rationalism and empiricism. This was the time, when
concepts of ‘Universal Truths’ were being challenged and concept of social construct started
taking roots. From the point of view of political economy, the growing relationship between
the merchant class and the ruling class started bearing fruit. The merchant class was looking
to extend its wealth beyond the confines of their geographical boundaries and hence the
growing influence of economic activity in the political arena eventually resulted in the
concept of the collective wealth of the nation.

What is ‘value’, how it is created and what is the nature of wealth were investigated upon
quite excruciatingly. It is not opportune to discuss the technicalities of such developments in
the form of Physiocratic and Ricardian movement at this stage. However, one concept
requires some discussion, which is the nature of wealth. This important question started
with an initial concept of gold being considered as the real wealth of the nation and hence
the need to increase it as much as possible. This philosophy is commonly referred to as
Bullionism. Since the quantity of gold in a given country is limited, it was natural to
eventually look towards a transfer of wealth from other countries to their own. While such
attempts were being made by a number of countries in Europe, for example, England,
France and the Netherlands, it was England that was gradually emerging as the victor
amongst its peer countries. Bullionism provided impetus to the Merchants to look for
international trade that would lead to an increasing amount of gold in their own country.
Even though, it may result in a temporary departure of gold from their country as they
needed to import raw materials, the focus was to increase the net reserves which was
possible by importing raw materials and selling finished products. This phase of
development was facilitated by trading corporations like the East India Company and the
Dutch India Company, both working on the same objective of transferring wealth from other
nations to their own. However, increased productive activity in the country could not be
possible without bringing social changes as well. The working class was not enough to
increase its production capacity unless more working hands were added to it. Accordingly,
under the mantra of emancipation of the women folk, the working class was extended to
include women. Europe thus entered in a new social paradigm whereby women were
brought out of their houses and into the economic activity. This was natural because
women usually account for almost 50% of any population. Europe was however, obsessed
with the idea of growth and development as it was entering into the ‘Enlightenment Period’
of its history. Under the mantra of progress, development and growth, eventually even the
manpower was not going to be enough. It was therefore, necessary to mechanize the
production process so that the limitations of human power could be removed by the
introduction of machines. The invention of steam engine provided the necessary fodder for
‘industrialization’ which would take the production activity in Europe to a new level. It
would not only increase the overall productivity of the country, it also improves consistency
and quality of the produced goods and with increased production, Europe was able to bring
the costs down to a level where it would be impossible for anyone to compete with them.
The process of wealth transfer which had started as a result of trading corporations entering
into the economic power houses of that time, mainly the Ottoman empire, the Mughals and
the Persian Safavid empire, took the next step of colonizing them through conspiracies and
political maneuvers. This phase of colonization, shocked the Muslim world which started to
look for answers as to what had led them to such a debacle. Even during this time of
uncertainty, the western nations pursued the policy of enslaving those nations both
physically and psychologically inorder to maintain their hegemony until they were satisfied
with the wealth transfer. This process was facilitated by Orientalist, who, in their attempt to
explain the debacle started theorizing that it had happened due to a lack of development in
the Muslim nations. They theorized that Muslim nations had reached such a low point in
their histories because they had left the ways of education, science and research and
therefore, they needed to be brought back on track by pursuing the sciences and excelling in
technology which had brough Europe to this level of development and ascendency. This was
a flawed concept, prima facie, because the decline in Muslim nations was a not a result of
their lagging in science and technology but rather due to their leaving their core cultural,
social and religious values. For example, it would be ridiculous to think that the Mongols
overwhelmed the Abbasids due to their superiority in knowledge and technology or the
Spaniards were able to defeat the Ummayad in Spain due to their development in science
and technology. Nevertheless, the imprint of the Orientalist thought was so far reaching
that, even today, we believe to the core of our heart that the only way of salvation for the
Muslim nation is to overtake the western nations in their own game. In this attempt to
reconcile two completely alien concepts; the Islamic system of life vs the Western system of
life, we have created a complete state of confusion in the mind of our population.

Coming back to the historical development of the economic thought, at the turn of the 19 th
century when industrialization began, a new industry started taking shape; the energy
industry. Machines needed energy which was provided in the form of hydrocarbons. As
industrialization increased, so did the consumption of hydrocarbons. This eventually led to
the creation of another monster in the form of international energy companies as they grew
so powerful that they had the capacity to start wars and change political landscapes.
To sum up the story of development and growth so far, we have seen that whatever came in
the path of such growth was eventually handled; from the inclusion of women in workforce,
thereby by bringing the most profound social and cultural changes, to the mechanization
and the excessive use of hydrocarbon and from colonization of countries for the transfer of
wealth to the demolition of their indigenous value sets for a scheme of global value set. In
this process of elimination, perhaps the last but the most potent limitation was the money
supply itself. It is common knowledge that economic activity is limited by the money supply
in an economy and money supply was in the form of gold and silver which, eventually, is a
finite commodity. Even after massive transfer of this wealth to the European countries, a
time had to come when there would be nothing left to transfer. This should, however, not
come in the way of progress, development and growth and so it was necessary that the
concept of wealth and money supply be changed. The concept of wealth was gradually
changed from gold to the cumulative production of a country which is commonly referred to
as its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Economists theorized that while gold was definitely
wealth, it was not the only form of wealth. With the change in the concept of wealth from
gold to GDP, the focus also shifted. But this conceptual change would have no meaning
because eventually the money supply was still linked with gold in most countries. With
money supply linked with gold, the overall money supply could not be increased
significantly and hence the economic activity had to hover around the same level due to this
constraint. After the two world wars, Europe was under stress financially and needed to
restart its economic machine. It was therefore necessary to increase the money supply by
delinking it with gold. This process was started in 1944 by the signing of the Bretton Woods
Agreement which paved the way for the eventual delinking of currency from gold in 1971
when Nixon removed the gold standard under pressure after the Vietnam war. If anything
defines the pinnacle of the Iblees masterplan to replace the system of justice created by
Allah with a system of oppression, it would be this moment. This was exacerbated by the
fractional reserve banking system which allowed banks to create their own ‘money supply’
in the form of credit.

With the increasing money supply in economy due to it becoming a discretion of the
Government, the initial reaction was positive as it brought prosperity following the
devastations of the world wars. Increasing money supply provided the necessary buying
capacity in the economy which was required to provide a growth spurt to the production
activity. This was supplemented by a new wave of marketing which enticed people to buy
ever new products converting them into consumers who would devour anything that is
offered to them. The intellectual underlay for this new social and economic change was
provided by people like Milton Friedman who popularized the concept of ‘Free Economy’
leading to minimalist government intervention in economy and free will of the people to live
their lives as they desired. He, along with his followers belonging to the Chicago Economic
School legitimized ‘greed’ paving the way for maximization of shareholder wealth concept.
His concept of unceasing growth and the maximization of wealth of corporations created an
economic culture where, the purpose of life was contracted into an endless process of
earning and spending. While, the common people’s condition improved during this time,
what they did not realise was that the greatest transfer of wealth in history was happening.

The concept of maximizing the wealth of shareholders hidden behind the corporate veil,
facilitated by the acceptance and legitimization of greed as a basic human instinct, resulted
in an ever growing gulf between the capital and the labour. This was not going unnoticed,
though, and reactionary revolutions in the form of Socialism and Communism started taking
shape. For the supporters of capitalism, this was a threat that could not be ignored. After
complex political maneuvering, through the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia, a downfall of
Communism was achieved within a period of 10 years symbolised by the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989. With capitalism at its peak, this led to the declaration of victory by the
Western countries when a combination of democracy, capitalism and freedom was
considered the victor of all systems. This was rather haughtily declared by Francis Fukuyama
in his book ‘The End of History’ as if declaring the victor of a long winded war amongst
various systems.

However, as it would have it, any system, not based on the injunctions postulated by Allah is
eventually bound to fail. Within 10 years, the sub-prime mortgage recession of US unfolded,
which unveiled a facet of economy which was hitherto hidden from the eyes of common
man and which was responsible for, perhaps, the greatest transfer of wealth in history. It
was the monster of the financial economy. When the gold standard was removed, an
unprecedented influx of money supply happened in economy. While common man was
happy with the leftovers thrown their way, it was the bourgeoise which again reaped the
benefits of it, this time through the financial economy. A gap started to emerge between the
real economy and the financial economy as the bulk of this money supply started ending up
in financial instruments which were the greatest source of speculative profit making. So
much so, the wedge between the real and financial economy has now grown to such an
extent that it now appears impossible to be bridged unless the financial economy comes
crashing down. This ofcourse will never be allowed to happen as it will expose the
foundational principles of the capitalism economy. For this reason, in 2007-2008 when the
sub-prime mortgage debacle happened, government had to intervene to save the financial
institutions which had caused this situation. This led to an extraordinary injection of money
supply or quantitative easing to support the bankrupt Financial Institutions. Eventually even
this injection went into the financial economy as it is the fastest and easiest way to multiply
wealth.

Greed, progress, growth and an absence of divine guidance has now created a society which
is a slave of its own economic order. Where the majority of population is surviving each day
and where the distribution of wealth is so distorted that it now exceeds anyone’s
imagination.

The purpose behind elaborating the evolution of the current economic order is to make it
clear how Iblees has utilized economics as its greatest tool to bring about social and cultural
changes by employing strategies which have obliterated the system of justice that Allah had
created. The system has not just affected humans, but through industrialization and the
excessive use of hydrocarbons, it has brought about such a devastation to the ecological
paradigm of Earth that it is on its path of becoming uninhabitable for any living creature
including humans.

In today’s world, economics is the greatest tool that Iblees has to implement its strategy. It
is therefore important to understand that defeating this strategy will require a complete
paradigm change in the economic model. On the contrary, most of the ongoing efforts are
trying to reconcile the current western model with might be called an Islamized version of
the same. This approach is unlikely to work.
In the following paragraphs, we are giving a snapshot of the outcome of the western
economic model so that reader can understand the extent of damage that it has done to the
natural state of livelihood created by Allah.

1. Just distribution of opportunities of livelihood is quintessential for a just economic

order. However, the distortion in the distribution in wealth has reached an extent
where 25 – 30 people in the world own wealth equal to 50% of the world population
of around 8 billion people. Some relevant statistics in this perspective are given
below:

Global Population Share Share in Wealth

55.0% 1.3%
32.8% 13.7%
11.1% 39.2%
1.1% 45.8%
100.0% 100.0%

As can be seen above, 1.1% of the total population of the world owns almost half of
the world’s wealth. The distortion continues within this 1.1%. for example, in 2009
only 380 people in the world had as much wealth as the bottom half; by 2018, this
number was reduced to only 26 top people. The distortion in distribution of wealth
has never been so high in the history of mankind. The destitute portion of the
population, that is the bottom half, has on average less than Rs 500,000 wealth per
person. Considering this is an average, it is not difficult to imagine the state of affair
for people who belong to even the bottom half of the bottom half.

2. The system of universal justice requires that all creatures of the Earth get an
opportunity to lead a normal life, including the flora and fauna. However, the ever-
increasing emissions due to the use of hydrocarbons has led to a state of
uninhabitability and a case of extinction of an ever increasing number of species. The
graph below shows the quantum of emissions over the last few centuries. The
increase from the 1940s is quite visible.

Annual CO2 emissions

300,000,000,000

250,000,000,000

200,000,000,000

150,000,000,000

100,000,000,000

50,000,000,000

0
175017631776178918021815182818411854186718801893190619191932194519581971198419972010

It is estimated by Scientists that overall global average temperature has risen by

1.1oC compared to the pre-industrial levels. The world is heading towards 2 oC at
which level, most parts of the world will become uninhabitable for humans and most
lifeform. Under the auspices of the United Nations various Climate Agreements have
been agreed. In the Paris Accord it was agreed to restrict limit carbon emissions by
45% by 2030. On the contrary, since the signing of that agreement, emissions have
actually increased by 14%. The graph below speaks for itself that these agreements
are nothing but an eyewash for a world which is too engrossed in making the two
ends meet.
3. A true economic system comprises of real economic activity. However, the current
economic system, which is fueled by fiat currency is extremely skewed towards a
financial economy. Some trends will make the situation clear.

US Money Supply
25000.0

Money supply in US has seen an

20000.0
ever increasing trend to maintain
a sense of growth in the economy
15000.0 since 1970s

10000.0

5000.0

0.0
01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
01- 06- 11- 04- 09- 02- 07- 12- 05- 10- 03- 08- 01- 06- 11- 04- 09- 02- 07- 12- 05- 10- 03- 08- 01- 06- 11-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
59 61 63 66 68 71 73 75 78 80 83 85 88 90 92 95 97 00 02 04 07 09 12 14 17 19 21
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

M2SL
To understand the extent of anomaly in the money supply and its usage in the
financial economy, consider the following facts:

i. The total gold reserves held by world central banks is US$ 1.9 Trillion
ii. The Total physical currency notes in circulation in world are estimated to be
around US$ 7 Trillion
iii. The total debt which is part of the money supply is estimated to be around
US$ 300 Trillion.

Money Supply distribution - Value in Trillion Dollars

350
300
300

250

200

150

100

50
1.9 7
0
Gold Currency Notes Debt
 Now coming to the utilization of the above money supply, please consider the
following facts:

i. The total world GDP (real economy) is around US$ 90 Trillion

ii. The total size of the real estate market is estimated to be around US$ 280
Trillion
iii. The total size of the derivatives market, which is only a subset of the financial
economy, is estimated to be around US$ 600 Trillion. It is not possible to
accurately estimate the size of the entire financial economy.

4. Perhaps the greatest impact on the common man has been made through the
industrialization of food and medicine. The so called green revolution has been
enabled through the introduction of hybrid and genetically modified seeds which are
promised to provide a higher yield than natural seeds. Through the continuing use of
those seeds, the natural seeds are now becoming extinct resulting in an over reliance
of such large corporations for the supply of seeds for the next crops. Similarly the
use of fertilisers and pesticides virtually kills the soil and its natural inhabitant both
over and underground resulting in an inevitability where the same soil becomes
unable to bear any crop unless it is fertilized with the synthetic ammonia and
nitrates. Similarly, the industrialization of medicine has eliminated all except for a
few remnants of the traditional herbal medicines which provide long lasting relief
albeit gradually. The continuing use of such food has deprived us of the Tayyab
(pure) food that we used to consume resulting in much healthier lives. Similarly, the
use of allopathic medicine, while providing urgent relief actually make us over
dependent on medicines to lead a healthy life.

From the above certain conclusions can be made:

1. The world economy is standing on fiat currency and reserve banking which has lost
touch with the real money (i.e., gold) by a huge margin. It is like a car moving on a
steep mountain, if you lose momentum, the car will come crashing down. The same
 analogy applies to the continual creation of money in the economy, the moment
currency creation will be stopped, it will all come crashing down.
2. It is being utilized in financial economy more than the real economy by several times.
This is indicative of the fact that majority of money (which is not backed by any real
wealth) is being invested in instruments which are not backed by any real wealth.
When the economy is standing on such flimsy grounds, it is only a matter of time
when it comes crashing down.
3. It is resulting in handful of individuals gaining tremendously from the system
resulting in a distortion of wealth never seen in human history.
4. The system is in such a state of disorder that to think, that it can be salvaged and
rectified to bring about a reversal of the above situation is nothing but a fallacy.
PART 2
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN DEVELOPMENTS IN ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND SOCIAL
THOUGHT IN EUROPE

The developments that happened in the domain of economics, particularly political

economy, were naturally not happening in a vacuum. These were happening within a larger
ambit of social changes which started in Europe during the 15 th century. While it is not
possible to discuss the entirety of the European history in this space, it is however,
important to highlight the major element of those developments which were entwined with
the economic thought. Which of these two was driving the other, it is hard to establish,
however, one thing would be very clear that there was a symbiotic relationship between the
two strands of European history.

The history of Europe can be divided into 3 main phases; Classical Age (from 8BC to 6AD),
Middle Ages (from 6AD to 1400 AD) and the Modern Age (from 1400 AD onwards). The
classical age is earmarked by the Roman and Greek societies while the rest of Europe was
living in almost barbaric conditions. With the acceptance of Christianity by Emperor
Constantine, the Roman republic entered into a new phase where Christianity became the
official religion of the Republic leading to the formation of two poles of power; the Emperor
and the Pope. While the Classical age was secular in nature, it was rapidly brought within
the religious domain with the inculcation of the priesthood in the day to day affairs of the
country. However, due to the gradual degradation of the priesthood and the prevailing
corruption in the church, a sense of discontent was growing among the masses. So cometh
the 15th Century a new movement, somewhat reactionary in nature, started flourishing in
Europe centered around a concept called ‘Humanism’. Humanism as an idea revolved
around the central position of humans in the universe and considered ‘rational thought’ as
the main driver of human success. For this reason, the philosophers of that age such as Rene
Descartes (who famously said “I think, therefore I am”), Francis Bacon etc, emphasized on
the importance of rational thought in human development. In order to substantiate their
arguments, they showed the Classical Age as an example of how Europe existed as a great
world power when the Greek and Roman philosophers utilized their intellectual and rational
thought to sculpture a society which progressed like none other in the history of Europe.
Middle Ages were portrayed as a period of degradation of the continent so much so that
they were commonly referred to as the Dark Ages. Thus, a reactionary process of
secularization of Europe started which saw humanism being established as the primary
philosophy. The main elements of this philosophy included the following:

1. What are the fundamental rights of humans that needed to be ensured. After great
philosophical debates the main rights, amongst others, were shortlisted as life,
freedom and happiness.
2. Human rational thought, without any limitations from divine knowledge, was agreed
to be the main driver to achieve the fundamental rights of humans.

This subset of the Modern Age starting from 1400 which extended until 1600 is commonly
referred to as the period of Renaissance. The ideas above not only affected the social lives
of people living in Europe, but extended to all facets of life including their religious life. It is
natural that the secularization did not happen overnight and philosophers and social
scientists in those times were still religious to a large extent. However, their understanding
of religion was changing and they started challenging the clergy over the interpretation of
religious knowledge based on their own rational judgement. Eventually with Martin Luther,
a figure emerged who claimed freedom from the clergy and laid the foundation of a new
form of Christianity where everyone was free to interpret the religion according to their
own rational thought. Today we call this period as a period of ‘Reformation’ in European
history starting from 1517 paving the way to a new sect called ‘Protestantism’. The initial
impulse during the period of renaissance was to look backward and acquire inspiration from
the classical age. Accordingly, emphasis was placed on revival of knowledge of the Greek
and Roman philosophers in Europe which was lost for most part in the continent and for the
revival of which help was sought from Muslim philosophers such as Ibn e Sina (Avicenna)
and Ibn e Rushd (Averroes) etc. It is thus not a coincidence that the renaissance movement
finds its roots in Southern Italy, where influence of Muslims was still present at that time.

The reliance on human rational faculty to improve the condition of humans naturally
resulted in a need to better understand the laws of nature and to master over them so that
they can be manipulated to provide the greatest amount of comfort to humans.
Intellectually fueled by philosophers like Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbs and John Locke,
Europe thus saw a period of Scientific discovery, by such figures as Isaac Newton,
Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo and others though still relying heavily on the foundations laid
down by Muslim scientists in Andalusia and Anatolia. Scholars had earlier travelled to these
power centers to learn from their universities only to go back to setup their own which we
would later be known as Oxfords and Cambridges of the world. This was a period of intense
scientific and intellectual activity and Europe had resorted to all modes, create, steal or
borrow to enhance their scientific muscle.

Moving forward, the continent was gradually evolving into a society which was relying on
rational thought, supplemented by scientific knowledge to bring humans to the center of
universe by conquering the laws of nature. The aim was to increase and improve human life
and to provide the requisite freedom to not only achieve this but to extend it into a form of
lifestyle. The keywords thus describing this period of history were humanism, freedom,
scientific knowledge and rational thought.

Beginning of the 17th century, Europe graduated itself to a higher position and started
postulating towards looking forward rather than backward. It was necessary as looking
backward could only bring them so far. Thus, a new period in European history commenced
which is referred to as the period of ‘Enlightenment’. While Renaissance was marked by the
concepts of rational thought, freedom and scientific knowledge, the period of
enlightenment added the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘progress’ to it. The underlying
objectives remained the same but with passing time, the extent of secularization of Europe
increased. With progress and development as the mantra and scientific and rational thought
fueling it, Europe entered into the Industrial age at the beginning of the 19 th century.

To understand the relationship between the development of economic thought and the
social and political thought in Europe, it is important to understand that the process of
rationalizing human thought and a breakage from divine wisdom which started in the 15 th
century culminated into what we call industrialization of Europe in the 19 th century beyond
which Europe can be said to be in a Post Modern era. Renaissance started in the 1400s
whereas Mercantilism started taking roots starting 1500s. So it took 100 years of social
engineering before a new economic paradigm started taking shape. The reason for this is
that during the Middle Ages, the economic thought was also driven by religious leaders and
hence we see that even for economic theories we needed to refer to religious leaders like
Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Divine knowledge provided the necessary base for the
economic activity and inspite of all the corruption that had crept into Christianity till that
time, it still had the remnants of a moral base to keep concepts like greed and an insatiable
pursuit of happiness through material means in check. Thus, it was imperative that to
convert humans into homo economicus, it was necessary to eliminate the impact of divine
knowledge from their everyday lives and bring a sense of freedom to create the necessary
base for an economic plan to materialise.

The original question of which development affected which is thus a moot point. The author
is of the view that social and religious change was a conduit to bring about economic
change, which eventually leads humans to a state where they are left with nothing but a life
filled with worldly pursuit of happiness.

Figure 1 Timeline of Europe from a Social and Economic Point of View

From a social perspective, the concept of Humanism which started in the 15 th century is now
approaching its pinnacle. Let us elaborate certain aspects of it.
1. Life – the central concept of humanism revolved around the fundamental right of
humans to live. While most of us would confine it to an understanding that no
human shall be killed without cause, that is not the eventual thought of those who
follow it. For them ‘death’ is an enemy that needs to be defeated because it is the
opposite of life. This is not just a theoretical concept anymore as several companies
with substantial funding are working day and night to understand the causes of
death and to conquer it. For example, Calico (California Life Company) is a company
which is a direct subsidiary of Alphabet (Google). The Company has a stated
objective of understanding death and to defeat it. Similarly Alto Labs is another
company financed by Jeff Bezos (Owner of Amazon) which is actively working to find
the reasons and causes of death and to find a cure for it. In addition there are a
number of companies which are working to increase the lifespan of humans by
continuously studying them and to identify the reasons for organ degradation in
order to slow the process or to reverse it such as bit.bio which is working on ways to
re-programme human cells to reverse any effects of ageing or disease thus resetting
them for immortality. You may also have noticed that in recent times, the availability
of health focused devices (smart watches, fitness bands) have risen to an extent
where almost everyone uses them to certain extent. All the data thus collected is
thus made available to such companies to understand the reasons behind people’s
deteriorating health and to find a solution for it. While some may argue it to be a
noble pursuit, it is not just the idea that matters but the process which eventually
aims to make humans immortals.
2. Happiness – an infinite life full misery is something no one would want. So, if science
is looking to find a cure for death, they will also need to find a way to keep humans
happy all the time. Unfortunately, science only recognizes physical motivators of
happiness and thus is looking for how humans can be kept happy all the time by
studying only the physical and chemical properties which change in human brain in
moments of happiness. The research and work in this domain is happening on
multiple fronts. While it is not possible to list of all them and to explain them, some
can be highlighted to provide the necessary cue for further deliberations. The areas
include genetic engineering, chemical manipulation in human brains, virtual worlds
where people could live instead of the physical world etc.
 3. Freedom – an infinite life full of happiness can only originate in an environment of
freedom, so thinks the humanist philosophers. Hence freedom will remain
quintessential to the idea of development. Substantial development has already
happened in this domain which can be summarized as follows:
a. Freedom in Political Life – political freedom has seen its panacea in the form
of ‘democracy’ which is considered to be the government of the people, for
the people and by the people thus giving them a sense of freedom inspite of
being governed.
b. Freedom in Economic Life – as already discussed in detail, this remains one of
the cornerstone of modern economics. Interventions from governments or
supranational bodies is now declining and is applied only in the form of
lender of last resort. Modern Capitalism has shaped itself up for a system
where absolute freedom exists for anyone to engage into economic activity
and to attain as much benefit out of it as they can without limitations.
c. Freedom in Personal Life – this concept is encapsulated in the term
‘Liberalism’ which leads to a freedom of thought without any divine
limitations. The liberal philosophy has seen progress in leaps and bounds. The
greatest example that we see today for personal freedom is in the form of
LGBTQ+ naturalization. The kind of support that this initiative is getting from
the business community is inconceivable and makes sense only once we see
the holistic picture of how social engineering has led to the creation of Homo
Economicus.

To conclude the discussion, social and economic developments have occurred in Europe like
two strands of a single rope, one supporting the other. Social change incited economic
development while economics is now driving social change and is aiming to achieve the
ultimate targets set by the earliest philosophers in terms of life and pursuit of happiness.
However, it is our belief that this is all part of a grand design conceived and implemented by
Iblees, which aims to bring about a downfall of humanity all the while showing them the
bright and sunny progress lying ahead of them. The key idea can be summarized utilizing an
example. If you ever visit a beach you will see clear and straight shore lines giving an
impression of order and symmetry. However, if you observe the same shoreline from space,
it will appear to be a plethora of randomness and chaos. The same principle applies to the
current social and economic situation. If we look at individual aspects of it, they may appear
to be normal and complying with natural laws, yet if our focus zooms out and we look at it
from a distance in such a way that the whole process is visible to us, then only we find
ourselves in a position to see the apparent chaos in it which eventually leads to entropy and
rising discontent amongst humans. It is therefore, impossible to evaluate the situation in
isolation. The correct way of understanding it is by looking at the whole historical process
through which it has reached its current position and where it is heading. Only with the
appreciation of this macro view, will we be able to realise that the solution lies not in
making fine tuning to the individual components of the system, but by rejecting the system
altogether and to re-initiate the same system, in its most pristine form, with its spirit intact,
that was instituted by our Prophet Muhammad SAW.
PART 3
SUGGESTIONS FOR RESETTING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM TO GO BACK TO THE
ROOTS PROVIDED BY THE PROPHET (SAW)

Continuing from our conclusion in the previous Part, it is important to highlight that for a
nation, or more appropriately, a system, it is imperative to be clear as to what it stands for.
Currently, we stand for the same system as everyone else is standing for and are, therefore,
in the same race as they are. Since we are far, far behind in that race compared to the
Western nations, we believe that our success will lie if we catch up with them. In this naïve
and erroneous belief we are running after a fallacy which will eventually take us, along with
the western nations, in the abyss of utter destruction. On the other hand, if our race is
different, and we stand by it, then gradually but surely people will start joining us in that
race because it would be apparent to them that they were running in the wrong race.

With this, lets focus on what we, as Muslims, stand for? Do we stand for material progress?
Do we stand for absolute freedom? Do we stand for eternal life in this world? What is it that
we stand for? Unless this question is clear to us, we will not be able to re-create the system
that would become the quintessential alternative that the world is so desperately seeking
right now.

What is the ultimate objective of life? It is to follow the course set for us by Allah which
includes, inter alia, attaining the knowledge of Allah and the establishment of a system of
universal justice on Earth. Our success in this endevour is judged by whether we attain the
realm of Jannah in the hereafter, which remains the ‘Greatest Success’ in the eyes of Allah.
Since we are a combination of body and spirit, we cannot follow this path without attending
to the needs of both the body and the spirit. Within the spectrum of the needs of the body
lies the concept of ‘basic needs’ without which it is well nigh impossible for us to attain the
ultimate objective. At this juncture, it is important to differentiate between basic needs,
comforts and luxuries. Basic needs are generally accepted to include food, clothing and a
place to live. People may argue about this list and it may have changed its meaning over the
course of centuries. Comforts, on the other hands go slightly beyond the basic necessities
and include matters such as transportation. Luxuries can span over all the requirements of
humans and more while being extravagant for no apparent reason. For example, food is a
basic need, but a $1000 steak at a fancy restaurant is a luxury. Similarly, clothing is a basic
need but buying a $500 jeans is a luxury or having a car these days may be a comfort but
buying a million dollar Ferrari is certainly a luxury.

With this context, we must establish that the responsibility of the State is only to ensure
that all of its citizens are provided equal opportunities to attain basic needs. If the state
restricts itself to only this function, then the concept of ‘Political Economy’ is killed
immediately. We are not here to compete with anyone economically. If any nation wants to
compete with us, then they need to appear in the battlefield. As part of the responsibility of
the state to provide opportunities to attain basic needs, the state is inevitably also
responsible for these additional measures:

1. Ensuring supply of a medium of exchange i.e., money. In our religion, money can
only be something of value and having a shelf life which can be exchanged without
having to rely on something else to attain its value from.
2. Instituting a system of Zakat as it is inevitable that some people, inspite of the best
efforts of the state may still remain below the poverty line. Such people are to be
taken care via the medium of Zakat.
3. Provision of safety and infrastructure in the country through laws and its
enforcement
4. A system of universal justice would require careful consideration of creatures, other
than humans living in the same biosphere. Therefore, state to ensure that laws exist
and are enforced which help in avoiding a destruction of the natural habitat.
5. Focus on the educational needs of the society by ensuring that everyone receives the
same education which provides the right balance of the needs of the body and spirit

It would be apparent from the above, the reset system is as simple as it gets. It goes back to
the roots and restricts economy to opportunities for people to make a living and comes out
of the race of political economy. From a practical stand point, this can be achieved through
the following basic measures:
 1. Avoid urbanization by creating balanced life systems at the location where people
originate from. In this way we will have small sized villages, each with its own
strengths, culture and sustainable life support system.
2. Ensure abundance of food by developing food forests surrounding the villages. Food
forests can be developed using the principles of Permaculture which will ensure that
within 5 -6 years there will be so much food that the village may be in surplus
position. The food forests to be considered as communal properties with everyone
having the same right over it as any other person. Basic education and values will
ensure that people do not suppress other’s rights out of greed. Eventually, the
organic food being produced through these forests can also become a source of
revenue for the state by exporting to other countries where they are in high
demand. The barakah of community mindset will be evident in no time Insha Allah.
More details can be provided in this respect.
3. Model houses based on local climatic conditions and sustainable building practices
are built with the help of local community and architects and community planners
who specialize in this respect. Names can be provided for such individuals who have
an expertise in sustainable architecture and sustainable town planning.
4. Introduction of small sized manufacturing practices revolving around handicrafts and
workmanship rather than machines. For example introduction of hand operated
looms for the manufacturing of cloth.
5. Creation of a central agency, which provides the resources needed to setup small
scale businesses, training for the same and eventually for all surplus, act as a
procurement agency to buy and sell outside the country.
6. Basic housekeeping on financial matters including conversion of currency to gold
standard, abolition of riba, fractional reserve banking and limitation of banks to act
as a service provider instead of as a provider of finances.
7. Re-introduction of herbal medicine through education and setting up of model clinics
in each village. Introduction of small scale herbal medicine manufacturing facilities to
take advantage of local herbs and eventually for export.

In the end, this life system is supposed to be simple. The simpler we can make it, the more
time we will have to pursue the tasks given to us by Allah. It is Iblees strategy to make life
complicated for us and to indulge us into luxuries and comforts and through this process, it
eventually leads us into innovation in religion practices and alteration of the natural order.

The writer takes the liberty to state that this process of rationalizing the human thoughts
and to free it from any divine knowledge is a key strategy of Iblees which it tried to first
deploy on the Muslim Ummah through the inculcation of Mutazilah and Falasifah. But Allah
was kind enough to send Mujaddidin like Imam Ghazali who blew away the attempts to
rationalize our Deen which was perfected 1400 years ago. Unfortunately, though, we have
not been able to handle the improvisation in Iblees strategy, as he took the same to Europe
and utilized them to subjugate the world while leaving Muslim Ummah in a state of crisis
eventually leading to a belief that we have been so subjugated because we left the path of
development and technology like our earlier generations. Perhaps, times need a new
Mujaddid who can remind us that our salvation lies not in progress, but in going back to the
Prophet (SAW).

Allah Knows Best.

17 Rajab 1444
Karachi